Immediately prior to this appointment he was the Managing Director, ITV Wales having joined them and the board of HTV Ltd in 2004. ITV then produced over 500 hours of programmes a year in Wales for Wales across a range of genres and produced over 100 hours a year in the Welsh language for S4C. Roger led a major development project at ITV Wales which resulted in a range of new facility companies joining the ITV site just outside of Cardiff. In April 2006 ITV plc purchased the 50 acre ITV Wales studio complex and surrounding land west of Cardiff and in June 2006 Roger announced a multi-million pound investment programme in technology, staff training and site development. Roger was engaged in discussions with a number of stake holders including the Welsh Assembly Government, the local authority, property developers and a team of architects and planners on the new development.

Whilst at ITV Roger was also a director and Deputy Chairman of Boosey and Hawkes, the world’s largest classical music publisher. B&H was taken public to private in 2003 and is a HG Capital investment. The business model was focussed upon the international development and exploitation of the intellectual property contained within its music copyrights with offices in London, New York and Berlin. He remains a shareholder in the company.

Roger was for six years up to July 2006 a director of the Barchester Group which gave strategic, corporate and financial advice to a wide range of companies and was FSA registered.

Immediately prior to joining ITV Roger was the Managing Director and Programme Controller of Classic FM and a main board director of its parent company GWR group plc for six years. Roger was also a director of Digital One, the UK’s national commercial digital radio multiplex and a member of the management board of Livetime, a mobile broadcast entertainment joint venture between BT and GWR group. Roger took Classic FM to record audience, revenue and profit levels between 1998 and 2004.  Under his leadership, the station was named UK Station of the Year at the Sony Radio Academy Awards, Media Brand of the Year at the Media Week Awards, Brand Development of the Year at the Marketing Week Awards and Arts & Business UK Champion of the Year.

Much of Roger’s tenure at Classic FM was spent developing new revenue and audience streams for the Classic FM brand based upon thorough consumer focussed research. He launched classsfm.com and a new Classic FM record label in 1999, Classic FM’s live concerts division in 2000 and Classic FM TV in 2002. 

Before joining Classic FM in 1998, he spent eight very successful years in the record industry, as the Managing Director of EMI Records Classical Division and subsequently as the Managing Director of the EMI Premier Group, where he was responsible for a portfolio of labels including rock and pop catalogue, jazz, film soundtracks and TV tie-ins, musicals, country and world music. At EMI he was the first in the record industry to introduce focussed consumer segmentation research to influence A&R decisions, using techniques from the world of FMCG, employing marketing managers from Unilver and P&G. He developed these techniques further at Decca, Classic FM and ITV. At EMI, Roger was responsible for a string of hit artists and albums, including Nigel Kennedy, Vanessa Mae, The Monks Album, the Greatest Classical Album in the World, Train Spotting the soundtrack etc.

In 1996 Roger was approached to become World-wide President of the Decca Record Company, where he undertook a significant restructure of the business. In 2000 Decca became the most successful classical record label in the world. At Decca he worked with many great artists including Pavarotti and the Three Tenors. Roger chaired the classical committee of the BPI, the UK record industry trade body during this period.

Roger spent all of the 1980’s in pop music radio. From 1985 to 1990 Roger was Head of the BBC Radio One Music Department and a BBC producer, having spent five years in commercial radio at Capital Radio and Radio Tees. He produced the breakfast show at Capital Radio and Radio 1.  As a radio producer, Roger made a number of rock documentaries with artists such as Tina Turner, Eric Clapton, Bob Geldof, Wham, Madonna etc and produced the Radio 1 Road Show for two years. He personally won a number of awards as a Radio 1 producer, including three consecutive Sony Radio Academy Awards, a Gold Medal and a Grand Award at the New York International Radio Festival and the One World Broadcasting Trust Award featuring African rock music with Andy Kershaw. During his time as Head of Radio 1, he developed relationships with a number of rock promoters and the station was directly involved in many major events including the Nelson Mandela Birthday Concert, Knebworth and the Prince’s Trust at Wembley. The station signed a clutch of new presenters including Simon Mayo, Nicky Campbell and Mark Goodier during his tenure.

As a musician in the late 70’s Roger worked across a range of genres, in theatre and dance, in Bristol, Birmingham, Glasgow, Lancaster and London, writing the music for seven stage shows including the Punk play, “Riff Raff Rules” in 1978. He was commissioned by North West Arts to write for the Ludus Dance Company in 1979.

As Music officer of the Darlington Arts Centre (1980 -82) he promoted high profile rock, pop, folk and jazz events at this small scale venue. 

Roger was the Chairman of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and a director of Liverpool Capital of Culture Company – a multi billion pound regenerative project for the North West – from 2003 to 2006. During his three years as Chair, the RLP has posted a modest surplus each year – the first time in decades for the organisation. He has chaired three major national conferences for the Culture Company involving government ministers and leading figures from the cultural world.

He served a four-year term (2000-04) as Chairman of the MDS Advisory Group for the Department of Education and Skills, reporting to Estelle Morris and David Miliband. The group was responsible for creating a strategy to identify, nurture and develop outstanding talent who eventually would be able to work on the world stage – a £13m per annum project. He has been Chairman of the Ogmore Centre Trust since 1996, which provides residential education courses to children in South Wales including major programmes on sport and the arts. In 1996 he was invited by the BBC to join a three person panel to review BBC Radio 3’s performance against its strategy.

Roger was a trustee and a member of the board of the Wales Millennium Centre and was active prior to joining the board in 2004 in fund raising for the Centre in London. He is also a Vice President of the London Welsh Male Voice Choir and the Welsh Music Guild. In 2006 he held the Chair of Arts and Business Cymru and was invited by the Welsh Assembly Government to sit on the panel to review the Arts Council of Wales and the future funding of the arts in Wales.  Roger has spoken at numerous media and music industry events and has been a judge for many music and media awards.

He was named Commercial Radio Programmer of the Year at the NTL Commercial Radio Awards in 2002 and Managing Director of the Year in the British Radio Awards in 2004.  He was featured in the Financial Times Top 100 Creative Business People in 2003 and Broadcast Magazines Hot 100 in November 2004. In 2000 he was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2004 Roger was made an Honorary fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, and in 2005 he was presented with Honorary Membership of the Royal College of Music, by HRH, The Prince of Wales. Roger was invited to become a fellow of the Institute of Welsh Affairs in 2006. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the University of Cardiff in 2007. 

Roger has appeared before House of Commons Select Committees on two occasions; for EMI on CD pricing and GWR on the future of broadcasting, and before a joint session of committees of the House of Commons and Welsh Assembly Government for ITV, on the future of television in Wales.

In 2003, Roger was asked by fellow director of Barchester, David Charters, to become a founder member of the Beacon Fellowship – an organisation dedicated to encouraging philanthropy in the UK. For three years Roger was a scrutiniser for Beacon. The first awards took place at 11, Downing Street hosted by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Roger is a graduate of the University of Nottingham, B.Mus (Hons) 1976. His formative years in Wales were dominated by music and rugby, playing with the National Youth Orchestra of Wales, the Glamorgan Youth Orchestra, the Welsh Jazz Orchestra and singing with the Glamorgan Youth Choir.

Born opposite the common in Cefn Cribwr, Roger played rugby at school and at university. He owns four debentures at the Millennium Stadium and has attended international matches since 1966. From 1993 – 2004 he was an active member of the Maidenhead Rugby Club and was involved with teams from U8’s up to U19 level. He is President of Cefn Cribwr RFC.

His wife of 27 years, Chris, is a doctor who is in general practice in Barry. They met at school in South Wales and they have two sons. Their eldest son is a graduate of Cambridge University, currently with KPMG as a graduate trainee and the youngest son is studying medicine at Nottingham University. Both are keen sportsmen and rugby players. 

In addition to rugby, Roger is passionate about skiing and hill walking. Roger and his family live in the Vale of Glamorgan having returned to Wales in 2004.

Career History